Shefford Saints Juniors FC – Established in 1989
Shefford Saints were originally started by Les Small so his son James could play football with his friends, on a regular basis.
Shefford would play friendly games, mostly against teams from the Stevenage Youth League, but also Royston Crow and Bedford. They would train on Tuesdays and play at weekends, but also enjoy Social Events, Skills Competitions, Fun Day’s, a trip to see Manchester United vs Tottenham enjoying a full day at Stretford Victoria FC with Manchester United players.
Shefford became affiliated to Bedfordshire FA in 1990, which would then allow the club to apply to enter a league. This was done when they applied to join the Royston Crow Youth Football League in the 1991/92 Season. However this was not as easy as thought, as Shefford had an issue with forming teams due to the fact the boys fell into 2 different age groups. So in the 1992/93 Season, Shefford entered their first teams into The Royston Crow League.
Under-11 which Ian Cooper & Colin Aldridge managed, Under-10 managed by Les Small & Steve Crompton while the Under-9 where Harry Stone was in charge were entered into the Pieces of Eight League. In 1992 it was decided to provide football for boys of all abilities, as Harry had nearly 30 boys training to form a squad. This is where one was chosen to play in the Pieces of Eight League and become Shefford Saints Reds, the rest of the boys becoming Shefford Saints Whites. Due to the Standard of the boys, the whites shadowed the reds squad and nearly managed to play a friendly every week against other Pieces of Eight clubs. This team was run by Roger Smythe.
So the path for the club had been laid and it didn’t take long before Shefford was running up to 3 teams in an age group.
Along the way the club formed many partnerships, most noticeably with Shefford Lower School, Robert Bloomfield Middle School, Samuel Whitbread Community College, Shefford Town FC, STMA, Shefford Town Council amongst others.
As the club grew, provision for a Football Pitch and Changing Rooms were given at Bellcote Meadow in the 94/95 season. This was driven by Barry Andrews through 1995, where the pitch were a field full of stones and when the changing rooms were built as a shell. These were all fitted by Shefford Saints with Terry Bridge being the main person behind this.
Shefford Saints next most noticeable step was the introduction of Girls Football. This was started by Lif Bishop who saw the need to allow the girls to participate in the sport and wanted to provide a platform for this.
Mini Soccer was introduced in line with the FA, and Shefford soon became one of the biggest Youth Football Clubs affiliated to the Beds FA.
The club worked tirelessly towards achieving the FA Charted Standard which was finally done in 2003. Since then the club have worked together with Robert Bloomfield Middle School to provide an excellent all weather Astro Turf, which allows the teams to train in good conditions all year round.
Finally, in the June 2008, the club was granted Charitable Status which will help with the funding of the organisation as well as long term goal of achieving some larger sponsorships.
2010 was the year that saw Shefford Saints get to the next level of FA Chartered Standard clubs and achieve Development Status.
Shefford Saints Summer Tournament
“In 2004 the club decided to resurrect our Summer Tournament . Shefford had organised tournaments in the past but for specific age groups but felt we needed to offer a tournament for all ages to enjoy. Due to the considerable hard work of the Tournament Committee and support from Robert Bloomfield Middle school the 2004 event attracted 60 teams from across Herts , Beds and Bucks. Over the past 5 years the Shefford Saints Summer Tournament has gained a growing reputation for providing a well organised and fun weekend of football for Kids from Under 7’s to Under 16’s.
The 2008 Tournament was our biggest event yet with over 1300 Kids Competing.
We anticipate that 2009 will be even bigger as we continue to attract new teams from further a field.”